Is anyone on here familiar with the town Novara di Sicilia? I have found several death records for my ancestors which states "via Gurnazzo" and the latest I found was from 1903. I tried looking on Google Earth to no avail. Is it possible that the street still exists in it's exact location? Also...was it commom for relatives/family members to live within close proximity of each other?

Is anyone on here familiar with the town Novara di Sicilia? I have found several death records for my ancestors which states "via Gurnazzo" and the latest I found was from 1903. I tried looking on Google Earth to no avail. Is it possible that the street still exists in it's exact location? Also...was it commom for relatives/family members to live within close proximity of each other?

Grazie!

Gina

GinaThe following info was just emailed to me from the town of Novarra's anagrafe/stato civile office-

There currently exists in the town Via Gurnazzo, Salita Gurnazzo, and Vicolo Gurnazzo. They are all small streets there. The "gurno," and its derogatory counterpart, "gurnazzo," refers to nothing more than a moat where water is collected.

To answer your other question, yes, I think in these towns, it was very common for family members, even extended family members, to live within close proximity to one another-sometimes even in the same house.

Oh my Gosh...thank you!!!! I literally got so excited that I spilled coffee! I know from other records that my ancestors were "bracciales"....and my mom always told me that her aunt, who was 10 when they left Novara in 1905, remembered their house having a dirt floor. Do you know how I can get a current map of Novara? One with Via Gurnazzo on it? Would they perhaps send me one??? Also...do you know if there is a way that the Stato Civile would have their address when they left in 1905?? Just to verify that's where they lived??? Also...seeing as my Great Great Grandfather died in 1886 on Via Gurnazzo...can I assume that's where my Great Grandfather would have been born in 1866? Sorry to bombard you with questions...but I am so excited at the possibility of walking down that same street where my ancestors lived someday!

Thank you so much for your help! This information means the world to me!

Gina, until you can get there in person, perhaps this will help. As you can see, there are lots of small streets that have not been photographed. One of them is bound to be your ancestor's. Sometimes you can see a street sign on a street that has not been photographed from a cross street. I've done some moving around of the stick figure but no Via Gurnazzo came up.

I have to agree with Mary that I doubt any current map will show these tiny streets. If you want to contact the stato civile, here is its email address. The person who responded to my email was A. Sofia.

Some towns kept track of the departures of their residents and have "liste embarchi." I don't know if this town would have such a list or whether or not it would contain info such as an address where your ancestor lived at the time of departure from the town.

To know the exact place where your great grandfather was born in 1866, you would need to get a copy of his birth record. Do you know if the 1866 year of birth is accurate or just an estimated year? If you are sure it is the exact year of birth, you might want to try to retrieve the record from microfilm, which can be rented through a Mormon library. These records will probably contain more info than you can get by emailing the town, although you might try emailing the town first for the exact date of birth. Knowing the names of his parents though would be helpful to insure that you get info about the correct person, as sometimes there are multiple individuals born in a town in the same year with the same name).

The link below will help you locate a family history center near to where you live, in case you want to try that. Microfilm rentals are now abt $7.50 a roll, or you can wait and see if they eventually put the records from your town online at familysearch.org. Some towns from Messina Province are there now.

Thank you both for your responses! Yes...I have used familysearch.org before and that is how I found pretty much all of my records for Novara! And I do have my Great Grandfather's birth record from 1866! It's very hard to read (even with my limited Italian) but I will post the link if you would like, or are willing, to take a peek at it and see if it says the street!

ginaruiz1998 wrote:Thank you both for your responses! Yes...I have used familysearch.org before and that is how I found pretty much all of my records for Novara! And I do have my Great Grandfather's birth record from 1866! It's very hard to read (even with my limited Italian) but I will post the link if you would like, or are willing, to take a peek at it and see if it says the street!

Grazie ancora!Gina

GinaDefinitely upload the record to the forum under the translation section and I will have a look at it. Plus, the parents names will be on that 1866 birth record and you can trace the ancestry further back using the other link I posted which has the records from 1820 to 1860. You can't download those images anymore, but you can look at them and extract the info from them.Erudita

Also....with familysearch.org...along with the parish priest at Santa Maria Assunta who provided me with copies of the entries in the church registries....I have been able to place my family in Novara di Sicilia as early as 1750! Amazing!

First of all, I did a full translation of the record under the translation section, but don't know if you saw it.

Secondly, I will walk you through the other website-

on the first screen, click on Sfoglia i registri

Next screen-use the drop down box to get archivio di stato di Messina; then click on cerca

next screen click on word apri at the bottom

click on Stato civile della restaurazione; then click on the word successivo twice to go two more screens to where you can see Novara listed. Click on that and you will get choices as to the type of record you want to search. Once you click on the record type, you will get a list of years

The typical Italian lineage dates from circa 1600, and for most of us that's reasonably profound. But who wants to be "typical" when you might be able to trace a lineage into the 1500s or even into the Middle Ages? Because success in this field requires practice and perseverance, as well as skills m...

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